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No. 15 Messiah Beats No. 16 Etown

from press release

ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. — In Thursday's clash between the
final two unbeaten women's lacrosse teams in the Middle Atlantic
Conference, the No. 16 Elizabethtown Blue Jays held a 5-4 halftime
lead over the No. 15 Messiah Falcons. The Falcons, however,
outscored the Jays by a 7-4 margin in the final 30 minutes to come
away with an 11-9 win at Ira R. Herr Field.

E-town (9-3, 7-1) got out to a 1-0 lead less than 1:30 into the
game on the first of Sarah Cullinan's three goals on the afternoon.
The Falcons (10-1, 7-0) fired back with a goal to tie things up
with 21:31 left in the first half of play.

At the 19:08 mark, Cullinan found sophomore Kara Solesky, who
also finished with three tallies on the day, for E-town's second
goal to take a 2-1 lead.

Messiah's offense started to pick things up with three straight
goals for a 4-2 advantage with 7:57 to play in the first half.

Not to be outdone, the Blue Jays went on a 3-0 run of their own
beginning with a free position goal by Solesky with 6:41 on the
clock. Just over a minute later, Cullinan found the back of the net
off an Emily Butler assist with just over five minutes before
halftime. Finally, Meg Cassels capped the run with her 11th goal of
the year with 29 seconds remaining to help the Jays take a 5-4
halftime lead.

The first minute of the second half started with some fireworks
as Messiah's Cecilia Kjellman finished a free position shot 20
seconds into the half. Cullinan responded 33 seconds later with her
32nd goal of the season for a 6-5 E-town advantage.

The Blue Jays took their biggest lead of the contest with 2:19
gone in the second half when a shot off the stick of Katie
Scheurich gave E-town a 7-5 lead. Over the next seven minutes,
however, Messiah held the Jays off the board and scored three goals
to make the score 8-7 in favor of the Falcons with 20:49
remaining.

From there, E-town's defense clamped down, holding Messiah
scoreless for more than 14 minutes of play. Also during that time,
Solesky and Becky Porter added to E-town's goal total to help the
Jays reclaim the lead at 9-8.

The Falcons broke through with a Meghan Doolittle goal with 6:22
to play, followed up by a goal from Lizzy Keeney with 5:58 on the
clock to put Messiah up, 10-9.

In the last six minutes, the Jays were able to fire off three
more shots, but one hit the post while the other two were saved.
The Falcons tacked a late goal with 0.6 on the clock for the 11-9
final.

The back-and-forth action saw seven ties and five lead
changes.

Cullinan and Solesky recorded hat tricks to lead the offense for
the Jays, while Messiah's Rachel Dirksen, Kjellman and Doolittle
recorded three goals each.